Weekend - more pictures than fish

[BlueRanger]

Muskies were dead this weekend - I only caught two small ones in the 32-34" range, both of which were pretty fish but I released them boatside without photos. I did have a field day - or at least a field morning - with the smallies on Sunday. After catching an honest-to-goodness 20" on a bucktail, I pulled out my topwater rod and caught a bunch more on a Spook - they were in 1-2' of water in weeds on top of a large sand bar along the Manitowish channel where I usually find muskies. Picked up a few more in the afternoon throwing a small jig and grub on my perch rod. In the evening, I caught one of the muskies throwing a Tiny Torpedo on a spinning rod, then got distracted by a deer feeding in the water and spent quite a while taking pictures of it, then had an after-dark encounter with a pair of herons that put up with quite a few flashes before flying away.

Surface temp actually dropped below 70 on Saturday morning, and was in the low 70s most of the weekend. There's a bit of an algae bloom and visibility was poor. Water level is rising - it was -1.6' on Friday morning and -1.4' today. Some of the obstacles that were visible two weeks ago are back underwater, and I saw a boat really whack a rock in the "Fishing Hot Spots Channel That Isn't" on the other side of the island from the rock dam. Also watched a guy in a Triton going about 60mph through the hole in the wall channel on multiple occasions, obviously unaware that there are a couple stumps in the middle and oblivious to the 100' from shore no wake requirement. Good thing nobody was coming through from the other side - that could have been ugly...

Pictures are posted.

[perchoreno]

Your "herons" are Sandhill Cranes, and forage in fields, probably even more commonly than in the water. As are the pics of the birds in the water which are also Cranes. I like that shot.

[BlueRanger]

Wow, I'm trying to fathom how I did that... I guess because they weren't trumpeting obnoxiously when I first saw them in the dark, I just decided they were herons and didn't give it another thought!

[DonH]

Once again I love the photos, but as the title of my reply states, I take pictures too! The problem is when I take a picture, it's like a bunch of archaeologists standing around a dinosaur bone. "It's a toe bone", "no, it's a finger bone", "no it's a neck bone", etc.

Only the guys looking at my picture are saying "it's a sunset", "no, it's Don holding a fish", "no, it's a picture of a moose behind a pine tree", and so on.

Thanks again for sharing.

[BlueRanger]

I'm sure they're not that bad, unless it was a really large pine tree or a very skinny moose...

[Mark Benson]

In Blues defense, there is no doubt in my mind that the birds in the field on the way home are cranes, but I am not sure that a case can't be made for herons in the water pictures... as neat as they are they don't in my mind provide a lot of definition and most of the animal is the blue grey heron color rather than the brown on the crane in the field pics... Not tryin' to start an argument, just sayin'...

Mark

[BlueRanger]

No, I take full responsibility for succumbing to an embarassing trick that my mind played on itself. I see and hear the Sandhills flying around all the time, and a while back I even posted one or two nice pictures (properly identified, I might add) of them in flight. But I've never happened upon them up close on the ground. All I could make out on Sunday night were the silhouettes of a pair of tall birds, and my brain immediately assumed they were herons. Even though the pictures didn't seem quite right, for some reason I quickly convinced myselt that my memory of herons was faulty, rather than the initial ID. When I saw a matching pair of birds the next day, those also became herons. When perchoreno pointed it out, it was one of those "DUH!" moments. But I'm also very interested in human perception and information processing in the context of communication theory, decision-making, leadership, etc., so it also provided something interesting to think about...